"The word 'and' is only the fifth-most used word in English and it has its own symbol – the ampersand," says Mathis. "Isn't it time we accorded the same respect to 'the'?"

The issue isn't just academic for Mathis. It's about efficiency.

"The main functionality of this is in the texting space," he says. Typing the symbol he has devised with a single keystroke will save time and – crucially, in the context of Twitter – two characters.

"The Benedictine monks developed the modern version of the ampersand in the Middle Ages, when they were hand-copying religious texts," Mathis says. "I'm not putting myself in the same league, but who knows – maybe in 500 years' time people will be amazed that there was a time when we didn't use 'th'."

At first, I really wanted to be all "W Ћ F?! This is totally ridiculous." But then I thought about it some more, and yeah, I would definitely use this. Be honest—you would too.